Cities agree to work together to cut water usage

Published 2:00 pm, Monday, January 24, 2011

Leaders from cities across the Permian Basin agreed Monday to take a unified approach when conserving water in the coming months.

In a meeting between the Colorado River Municipal Water District and the cities of Midland, Odessa, Big Spring and Snyder, leaders said they want to confront head on water limits being set by the district because of dry conditions.

"We all recognize we're in a drought," Mayor Wes Perry said. "Everybody needs to be basically on the same type of plan."

The Colorado River Municipal Water District (CRMWD) announced earlier this month it will have to restrict the amount of water municipalities can purchase during 2011. For Midland, the limits will equal an about 10 percent cut in summer water purchases if the dry weather persists, according to CRMWD General Manager John Grant.

On an average high-use day -- which occurs between about April and October -- Midland utilizes 27.45 million gallons of water, with irrigation making up about 60 percent of that usage, said Tasa Watts, city public information officer. A 10 percent reduction in supply would mean Midland could purchase an average of 24.7 million gallons of water per day during high usage months.

"The urgency is there," she said.

Water supplies are being cut to each city proportionally based on how much they've historically used, Grant had said.

Monday, the cities' leaders agreed to form a sub-committee that will come up with a water plan that can be implemented in each city to decrease its usage.

Perry said, among other methods to reduce outdoor watering, they're talking about only allowing irrigation on certain days for residents. As a contingency plan if more water needs to be saved, cities could do things like request restaurants only serve water when asked instead of automatically, he said.

"Really April is when it's going to start to matter," Perry said.

Big Spring Mayor Tommy Duncan said leaders agreed with minor changes in each city the water limits can be met easily. Educating individuals on what they can do to help will be key, he said.

"The immediate response from all of those entities was we're in this together," Duncan said, of the cities. "We need to do it in a unified fashion."

The CRMWD already is restricted to pumping from O.H. Ivie Reservoir, E.V. Spence Reservoir and its well field. They've not been able to pump from Lake J.B. Thomas since 2009.

With Spence Reservoir at a capacity of about 2.79 percent on Monday, officials with the water district anticipate it will become too low to pump from by May or June if no extra inflow is experienced.

With just Ivie Reservoir and the Ward County Well Field remaining, the water district won't have the capacity to pump as much water as is typically utilized by its member and customer cities during the summer, Grant had said.

Ivie Reservoir was about 32.28 percent full on Monday, according to the CRMWD.

Watts said the sub-committee will work quickly to come up with a plan and then each city will communicate with its citizens about the details.

"Sixty percent of the water usage in Midland is outdoor water irrigation. That's really where our focus will be with the plan," Watts said. "That will not impact somebody's daily shower, washing laundry, flushing the toilet."

In addition to water purchased from the CRMWD, Watts said Midland also provides about 15 percent of its water supply from the Paul Davis Well Field.

If heavy rains hit the Permian Basin in the right place, Perry said some restrictions may not be necessary. However, he said, they want to start changing citizens' attitudes now.

"It's a cultural change for us to think about the way we use water differently," he said. "We've been blessed with good water resources and we need to be great stewards from now on. Every drop we save is significant."